What is the use of TOTW/POTW/NS player items?

If I may ask, now that it is clear that TOTW, POTW, and Nation's Story player items cannot be exchanged for star shards or extra time tokens, what exactly is their use?

Maybe one can use the higher OVR player items from Nation's Story for their line-ups. For some this might even be in their starting 11, if you particularly like a player, or for someone that doesn't play all that often and then can collect a 116 or maybe even 117 for free. Fine. But if you grind daily, even as F2P, chances are that at this moment their teams are already entirely 117+, so then at best a Nation's Story player item can be an "extra" (like: on the bench for H2H, but likely not in your VSA line-up because of the lower OVR). But other than that, apart from using them for training, I cannot think of any use for these player items.

TOTW and POTW player items do not go higher than 115. So these are completely pointless, now that I cannot exchange them anywhere anymore (again, except for training other player items - but I have sufficient training levels).

So what is the point of playing anything in Football Centre, and for playing anything in the Nation's Story chapters?

Can I please make a pitch for allowing them in some type of exchange? So that they can become useful? Star shards would of course be ideal, but I understand why this is not desired. But then at least allow them to be exchanged for extra time tokens? Then someone that grinds Nation's Story for a particular player item becomes a valid strategy, as well as selecting the cheapest player items to maximise your extra time tokens - and also there is at least some point to playing TOTW.

Thanks for considering.

Cheers,

Kannix